Review | Ready Player One

From book to film Ernest Cline’s multiverseal video game The Oasis has made it to the big screen – but sadly the flaws that held it back originally may have been improved upon, but are still very much present.

From book to film Ernest Cline’s multiverseal video game The Oasis has made it to the big screen – but sadly the flaws that held it back originally may have been improved upon, but are still very much present.

This doesn’t feel like Spielberg. I’m not even sure some sequences actually are.

Where is the master of visual story telling? He wasn’t in the first ten minutes of the film, which feel so entirely dominated by a voice-over that I pity whoever has to devise the audio-description. Where is the director that manages to get some of the best child performances of all time? There’s only three lines spoken by a child and it’s still the worst performance of the film. No, scratch that, second worst. Because where is the director that knows the brilliance of a well-timed joke? He’s certainly not here, he wouldn’t of let TJ Miller treat every scene like he was still ad-libbing in Deadpool.

This isn’t a film for people that like Spielberg, this is a film for people that like the idea of Spielberg.

There are sequences in the film that very literally resurrect the dead and once the shine of understanding the reference fades away you’re just left with a faint discomfort, as what you’re watching is fun, but it just doesn’t feel right.

Granted there were vast improvements over its original in terms of story structure, but it failed to target the true issue which was always it’s characters, all of which are just as two dimensional as video game protagonists.

Understand that the reason I am so harsh about this film is not because it’s awful – it’s because somewhere in that monster there’s a spark of life. It’s the reason I sought out the book in the first place, it’s the reason why I went to see the film despite the book, and it’s the reason I don’t feel angry, just disappointed.

There is still a conceptual greatness in Ready Player One, I really truly believe that, but this film didn’t manage it.